Isn’t Afterpay just another form of debt?

19 January 2019 08:40

Updated

At Afterpay, we don’t make our money from you. Our money comes from retailers and service providers who pay us to help you buy now, and plan your repayments.

That’s why we don’t charge interest. Ever. And late payments are bad for our business because chasing them costs as much as we get back. Meanwhile if you miss a payment, you can’t buy anything else with us until your account is settled.

Could you imagine a credit company stopping you from buying more, and going further into debt, because you missed a payment?

We cap late fees at 25 per cent of your purchase price or $68 (whichever is less) – they never go higher than this. The real penalty for missing a payment is that you can’t use Afterpay until you make your outstanding payment.

Financial penalties are there, but only to stop Afterpay being deliberately taken advantage of – and as an incentive for everyone else to stick to their payment plan.